Teaching and learning English doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Being able to network with professionals in the field can kick-start your career and lead to greater employment opportunities for aspiring TESOL graduate students. For ELLs, it takes practice, constant exposure, immersion, and commitment, and those are hard to maintain when they are trying to learn a new language on their own. This is what makes Twitter such a useful platform for both teachers and learners of the ESL community. The benefits of participating in the Twitter conversation about ESL and TESOL are many, including:

Strong community of teachers and learners of all levels who will gladly offer tips and answer questions

Easily discover new tools and resources for learning English (and any other language!)

Stay engaged, motivated, and immersed in the process of learning English.

These Twitter accounts post some of the most consistently useful info on ESL and TESOL. These are all high quality accounts, and they aren’t being ranked in comparison with one another. Find the ones that are most useful to you, like those who been through or are currently in the process of earning an ESL-related master’s degree, and keep up with them daily!

General ESL

fluentin3months.com is a site packed with encouragement and “hacks” from Benny (Brendan) Lewis from Ireland. His site and Twitter are all about speaking languages as quickly as possible, as he travels to learn and speak languages himself.

Gapfillers delivers language development for people who need the very best level of skill. For professionals who need great English skills at a very advanced level and those trying to get high English language qualifications for their work, new jobs or future in an English speaking country.

Shelly is the author of The 30 Goals Challenge for Teachers: Small Steps to Transform Your Teaching and Learning to Go: Lesson Ideas for Teaching with Mobile Devices, Cell Phones and BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology). She supports and instructs thousands of teachers and students worldwide through the various online and face-to-face learning events she organizes and moderates.

The IATEFL Online website and Twitter give you an opportunity to share ideas with teachers all around the world and get a taste of one of the world’s biggest ELT conferences through a variety of resources.

This channel is completely dedicated to Luca Lampariello’s biggest passion: foreign languages. He firmly believes that languages cannot be taught — they can only be learned. His goal is to teach you how learn a language fast and efficiently.

Tyson Seburn is a language teacher who specializes in English for academic purposes (EAP) contexts and has a passion for social media. He devotes a lot of time to professional development events, blogging and Twitter, aiming to inspire fellow English language teaching (ELT) educators to become involved in their communities, diversify teaching practices and promote supportive yet constructive atmospheres.

Info For Teachers

Teaching English as a second language isn’t quite the same as teaching any other subject. Managing the nuanced differences between languages and accurately communicating meaning across that barrier is tough work, but there’s a stellar community of ESL/TESOL educators online striving to make that work easier!

Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto is an English teacher currently living in Kitakyushu, Japan. She has taught English as a Second or Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) for over 20 years. She is also the co-author of a children’s English textbook series called Let’s Go, and is passionate about teaching, especially about teaching English to young learners. She wants to learn about anything that will make her a better teacher.

TESOL Educators

Many teachers share their experiences, tips for motivating ESL learners, and even their assignment rubrics, lesson plans, and other assets online to benefit the global community of ESL teachers and learners.

Larry Ferlazzo is an English, Social Studies and International Baccalaureate teacher to English Learners at a school in Sacramento, California. His blog and twitter teach his readers about websites that will help them teach ELL, ESL and EFL.

Vicki Hollett is an an English teacher who has written many course books for Oxford University Press and Pearson. She teaches adults who need English for work, play and travel so they can communicate across cultures, build relationships and get jobs done.

This account is run by Anita Kwiatkowska. She is a teacher of English (and sometimes a trainer) currently based in Zaragoza, Spain. Her blog and Twitter are a record of her experiences and ideas about teaching and learning languages.

David Mainwood is a a qualified EFL / ESL teacher based in Spain and the UK. He is particularly interested in the uses of ICT in education and its effects on learning and creativity. He has his own popular blog for students of English as a Foreign and/or Second Language called EFL SMARTblog.

Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano was born in Germany and now is planted in São Paulo, Brazil. She has worked as a World Language teacher, Technology Integration Facilitator and 21st Century Learning Specialist. Her passions include globally connected learning, technology integration, 21st Century skills and literacies, as well as digital storytelling.

Jeremy Harmer writes books about English Language Teaching in cluding Methodology titles, course materials and learner literature (graded readers). He is also a frequent presenter, seminar leader and teacher in UK and all around the world.

The Consultants-E have worked together since the mid-1990s. Their work involves any aspect of online and distance education and training, as well as face-to-face training in all aspects of the application of technologies in education.

Ozge Karaoglu is an English teacher, freelance teacher trainer and educational consultant in teaching young/very young learners and teaching with web based technologies. She is currently working at a private school as an EFL teacher.

Karenne Sylvester likes to say she teaches teachers how to teach speaking using technology. She is a a certified TESOL trainer, working as a freelancer in Stuttgart, Germany. She specializes in teaching adult learners in the financial/ banking, energy, engineering and IT sectors.

Beyza Yilmas works as an EFL instructor and educational technology trainer at Özye?in University and as a teacher trainer for Pilgrims Teacher Training in the UK. She has conducted various online and face to face ICT training courses and co-moderated some Electronic Village Online sessions.

Finoa Mauchline’s blog and twitter are about teaching languages. Although they are in English, and probably most of the posts, contributions, comments etc. are written by English Language teachers, the aim is for it to be applicable to other languages too.

Other ESL & TESOL Accounts

The Macmillan Dictionary Blog is a multi-authored blog discussing the English language today. They explore a wide range of topics related to English as it is used around the world and hope to be of interest and relevance to the international community of English speakers.

Ben Zimmer is the executive producer of Vocabulary.com and
the Visual Thesaurus, language columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and former language columnist for The Boston Globe and The New York Times Magazine.

The ESL in Canada Directory has educational articles, addresses, links, contact and reference information to the many different services and resources that are available for students, visitors and new Canadians to study and learn ESL “English as a Second Language” for communication with English speakers for school, work and personal interests.

John Fotheringham created this site, the Language Mastery podcast, and his series of language guides to help adult learners reach their foreign language acquisition goals as quickly, cheaply, and enjoyably as possible.